Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this opportunity for
all of us to be here. Lord, we do thank you for all of your blessings, both
great and small, for the incredible variety of people in ministries that are
represented on this campus, for your Word that has been so clearly taught
already, and even Lord for cooperating with the weather and having it be
gorgeous, where it rained Monday and Tuesday, and yet you’ve given us blue
skies and comfortable temperatures so that we don’t all have be huddled in
small places around campus. Thank you for all of your blessings. Work in our
time today. Help me to have clarity and passion as I present these truths from
your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Well, it is very good for me to be with you today. I have
hoped to be here the whole week, and this is my first opportunity to be on
campus in several weeks. My name is Sheila Pennington; my husband is on staff
here, and I see some familiar faces from a couple of years ago. Last year I
wasn’t able to be here because I had just had a C-section with my youngest, and
so this is really a great privilege for me to get to be here with you today

I have three young children, a 7-year-old, a 4-year-old and
a 1-year-old, and so you pretty much know what my life is like, those of you
who have had children. I was going to tell you that I had every plan to be
here. I had a sitter for Thursday so that I could go to the luncheon at the
Reagan library. I was going to be here this morning to hear Donna; I was so
excited about the week, but I realized that particularly for this stage in my
life my life verse really needs to be “Man makes his plans, but the Lord
directs his steps.” And that’s always true, but particularly with young
children, the Lord seems to direct my steps through viruses, bacteria and other
nasty things. So I have spent the last two weeks holding a very sick baby and
“Lysoling” everything in sight. So you know what my world has been like, but I
am so thrilled that my kids are better and I am well enough to be with you here
today. And it was also fascinating that right when I am going to be speaking
on Titus 2—that’s the text we’re going to today—I have a wonderful opportunity
to really truly particularly love my children and be at home. And so I
realized that “OK, Lord, you’re giving me an opportunity to really try to live
this out.” Even though my heart was to be here with all the excitement, I got an
opportunity to really serve my husband and serve my children and be at home a
lot more than I expected to.

I wanted to start out our time today by telling you about a
time about a year and a half ago. Those of you who are not familiar with
southern California—this is a desert, and you’re getting to see it as its
greenest. We’ve had more rain in the last month, really than we often have in
a whole year; we had five inches a couple weeks ago, and that’s a third of our
yearly rainfall, just to give you an idea. We usually get oh, 10 to 15 inches
of rain. Therefore, we have a lot of wildfires, and you see them on TV. Of
course, everything that happens in LA, you see on TV. But we do have a lot of
wildfires, and about a year and a half ago, my children and I had been down
here on campus on a Friday morning and we were driving home around lunch time.
And I crested the pass to go up into the Santa Clarita Valley. And a large
plume of smoke was in the distance, and I thought—hmm, that looks like its in Saugus. That’s where I live. And so I called Tom, and I said, “You hear anything about a
fire?” And he said, “Well, yeah, it’s further up Bouquet Canyon.” So I said,
“OK,” and I keep driving and looking, and thinking, “That really looks like
it’s near my house.” But we hadn’t eaten lunch; I stopped at Wendy’s, you know
the $.99 burgers. And we were eating lunch, and I called my friend who lives
further up Bouquet Canyon, Linda Adrian. And I said, “Linda, are they
evacuating you?” And she said, “No, ma’am, they’re evacuating at Copper Hill
in Hascal.” I said, “That’s—that’s where I live.” Copper Hill in Hascal is a
¼ of a mile away. So I tried to hurry up the kids without panicking them and
still I see fire truck after fire truck after fire truck passing going up into
my neighborhood. And I pulled in the neighborhood just a few minutes before
they closed the area. And dutifully called the sheriff’s department, cause the
helicopters every 15 minutes flying over. I sat in my living room and watched
them douse the flames through the windows. And I said, “Should I leave?” And
he said, “No, you’re under—you’re under voluntary evacuation right now. Just
up the street there are mandatory evacuations.” He said, “You’re welcome to leave,
but realize that if you leave, you won’t be allowed home.” I’m going,
“Great.” I was pregnant at the time, two small children, dog, the whole bit.
Where am I going to, you know, just go camp out? Because it can sometimes be
days before you’re allowed back home. He said, “I would advise you to sit
tight, but if you have to evacuate, you’ll be given 10 minutes to leave.” OK.
So I’m trying to be calm. And I put on the Blues Clues marathon tape to try to
get the kids distracted from the helicopters and the airplanes flying over our
house and the flames leaping. I could literally see them on the hills. And so
I said, “Kids, you get to watch TV!” You know, whoo!, they thought that was a
big deal because we don’t do that a lot. And I put the fan on. I tried to do
anything just to knock down the noise. And I sat in the living room, and I
said, “OK.”

And here was the question of the afternoon. You’re given 10
minutes to leave your home. What do you take? And you know what? It was
fascinating because it brought such clarity. All of a sudden, all the clutter,
all the stuff—not much mattered. The kids, that was a given, the dog, better
take the dog, the important papers, the pictures. That was my list. And I
thought, “OK, if I’m given 10 minutes I can do this. Get the kids in the car
seats, you know, lock them in, get the music, then start throwing things in the
van, we can be out of here. The Red Cross station was set up right down the
street. I thought OK. Well, it brought such clarity that it was incredible.

Now, as the hours went on through the afternoon, that
clarity faded a little bit. Oh, Tom’s paintings, oh, the furniture Tom made,
my grandma’s necklace, you know, I started thinking of everything else I could
add to that list. And so my clarity didn’t last a super long time. But for
that initial time, it was crystal clear what was truly important. That’s the
kind of passage that we’re coming to today.

Titus 2 gives us that clarity. Because I don’t know
about you, but when I look at life, the clutter just “chhh…”. It crowds in on
me. What am I supposed to do? And in ministry whether you’re a pastor’s
wife or whether you’re a lay leader’s wife, there is so much to do. There
are so many demands on our time, so many good things that we can do that we
need a passage that cuts through the clutter and says, “OK, what are we
supposed to do?”

The first time that I really remember this passage, Titus 2,
being emphasized, was when I was a senior in college. Now I was brought up in
a very good Christian home back East, but I must say, women’s roles were not
emphasized and the passages that taught clearly from the scripture were not
stressed. In fact, women were expected to work full time just as a given in
the community where I grew up. And those passages that really emphasized
women’s particular roles were not emphasized at all. And the first time I
saw this passage emphasized was in a book. I was perusing the library, which I
loved to do. I’d give myself an hour a week at least just to go through the
library and pick out books and just give myself that time to introduce myself
to some new topic. And one day I was going through the family section, and
there was the book called “The Family” by this guy in southern California (now mind you, I grew up in South Carolina), southern California named John
MacArthur—never heard of him. Picked out this book “The Family,” see the
MacArthur clan on the back in their 70’s garb; it’s really funny. I still
remember that picture. But he just carefully exposited Titus 2, and it
resonated with my heart strings. And I thought, wow, this is so clear. And
Tom and I—I shared it with Tom; we were engaged at the time—and we said, that’s
the way we want to live. This is so clear. But it wasn’t until about 10 years
later when I finally had children—we had been married at least 9 years before
we had kids—that I really started wrestling with this passage on a daily basis
because all of a sudden, instead of being out there, because I was working. I
was working at the college. I loved it. I was in admissions, college
admissions, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And then, “whoom!” all of a sudden I
was at home. And I went from “out there,” to home. And I felt like often all
I did—hmmm, I still feel like this sometimes—laundry, diapers, bills. I mean,
that’s—I was just buried in it. And I thought this can’t be ministry.
Ministry is out there; ministry is teaching and discipleship and foreign
missions and running an orphanage. You know, that was my idea of ministry. And
so I saw myself, but I still didn’t really believe that my ministry was
first and foremost loving my husband, loving my children, being a godly woman,
being a keeper at home, being busy at home, discipling women younger than
myself. And so I started really wrestling with this passage. It was
years, ladies, that I would just flip open to Titus 2, and just say, “What am I
supposed to do again? What am I supposed to do again?” And I went there, and
ever since that time I’ve been asking myself, for myself and also for women in
all different stages, how are we supposed to live this? And that’s what
I want us to explore today.

First of all we have to understand what this passage
teaches. Is it merely saying a woman’s place is in the home? You know like
the bumper sticker If a woman’s place is in the home, why am I always in the
van? I know a lot of you understand that; I see my friends that have older
children and even grandmothers, they’re just, you know, “I’m supposed to be at home
and all I’m doing is in the van.” What does it mean; why is there the
breakdown between older and younger women? What do the words like “reverent”
really mean. What does that look like? And then how do I live this way?

The book of Titus was written by Paul to Titus. And it
doesn’t emphasize doctrine; it’s not Romans. It emphasizes equipping for
evangelism, and it tells us how to live a righteous, loving, selfless, godly
life. It starts with in chapter 1 verses 5 through 9 the qualifications of elders,
then verses 10 through 16 of that chapter deals with wrong teaching. And then
starting in 2:1, it talks about the things which are proper to sound doctrine.
And I just want to read, starting in chapter 2, and we’re just going to read
verses 1 through 5.

“But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for
sound doctrine. Older women are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in
faith and love and perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in
their behavior, not malicious gossips or enslaved to much wine, teaching what
is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to
love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject
to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored.”

Now notice the first part of this, “But as for you, speak
the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” Now this is in contrast.
If you look ahead, I got tickled at verse 16. Do things ever strike you really
funny when you read scripture? This doesn’t sound like it’s funny initially,
but listen to this, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny
Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” I
thought, “Well, come on Paul, how do you really feel about it?” You know, “detestable
and disobedient and worthless.” OK, there was nothing good in what they were
teaching. Paul felt pretty strongly about it; don’t hold back Paul. But then
he contrasts that wrong teaching to this proper teaching that he shows us
starting in chapter 2.

Speak, teach implies a persistence, a command.
You are to do it. This is not “try to”; this is not “if you have time.” No,
this is what you’re supposed to do; you are supposed to teach. Fitting
means based on what’s appropriate to; it reflects. Our pastor has put it this
way: “Healthy doctrine produces healthy spiritual living.” That’s what Titus
is all about. It’s not that our practice is totally separate from our
doctrine; it’s that our practice grows out of our doctrine. Ladies, we
need to be careful as ladies not to say, “Well we’re not interested in the doctrine;
we just want the practical stuff.” Everything is doctrine. Tom and I were
talking about this the other night, because I kind of get on the soap box about
this, that women should read the hard books and study the hard passages and grapple
with the difficult concepts and not wimp out. And I was saying, “It’s all
about doctrine.” I’m sorry, but the way I respond to the middle of the night
call from my infant or my sick child or the fourth interruption that night, has
everything to do with my belief in the sovereignty of God. That’s doctrine;
how I respond when I don’t feel well and when ministry demands are overwhelming
all comes down to doctrine. We can’t separate the two; they are not capable
of being separated. The way you behave shows what you believe. And so
this book is not in contrast to doctrine. Rather it shows you what proper
doctrine lived out looks like.

Our behavior should match our belief, and the flipside of
that is, sorry, but the way you behave shows what you believe. We may say—I’ve
seen this in my life a lot this last year, and I’ll share some of this with
you—I say I believe God is God, and I say I believe God is good, but how am I
acting? Am I really behaving like God is good in whatever He does? Now Paul’s
teaching here begins with older men, and then it also addresses older women,
young women, young men and bondservants. And quite often the injunctions that
follow—this is not a popular passage, because it is so counter-culture. This
stuff sounds shocking, and it is shocking because it’s totally
counter-culture. This is not the way our culture is structured, but you know
what? These injunctions, they may not be popular, but they are also crystal
clear. Now they’re going to look different in each person’s life, but the
principles laid out here are very clear.

My goal today is to come alongside of you, and we are from
all different backgrounds and all different stages of life. We’ve got a lot of
you gals that are younger than myself, some that may be more mature than
myself, but this passage is for all of us. And so what I want to do today is
just to come alongside and work through this passage, and it may be a really
familiar passage to you. But I would like to reignite your passion for the
truths for yourself and also for the ladies that you have opportunity to
minister to. And I’m going to address something right up front here. Maybe
this is so familiar to you, or when you share it with your women they go,
“Titus 2 again, can we please move on?” They might be so familiar that they
just tune out, or maybe you find yourself in that. Or, you know, there’s a lot
that could be predisposed against this. You know, “Oh, she’s going to talk
about never working outside the home and never…” click. I’m going to turn you
off. Or maybe there are people that are just in your group, just totally
ignorant, like honestly I was. I mean, I knew my doctrine well, I knew the
catechism when I was four and am very grateful for that. But I was pretty much
ignorant of passages like this. And so you’re going to find ladies in your
churches with all of those, from all of those perspectives as well.

Now, I don’t normally give away my outline up front, but I’m
going to today. And the reason I’m doing this is you ladies have listened a
lot, to a lot. This is the last day, the last afternoon of this session, so
this might help you those of you that are taking notes, just to kind of as we go
through, you’ll know pretty much where to fit this in. We’re going to deal
with I believe it’s four main points: the character of a godly woman; the
priorities of a godly woman—and under that we’ll deal with older and
younger; the motive of a godly woman (You notice it’s all of a godly
woman, so you can just put those little…OK.); the practice of a godly woman.
So character, priorities, motive and practice. And you can fill in as
we go, but hopefully that’ll give you a little bit of an idea of the direction
where we’re heading.

I. So let’s begin with the character of a godly woman
since that’s where this passage begins. 2:3 states, “Older women, likewise
are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to
much wine, teaching what is good”

Now this verse identifies what older women are to be and
what younger women are to pursue, so it’s for everybody. And as I mentioned,
we’ve got both categories here in this room, and they’re both in our churches.
You’ll notice through my illustrations, I never have fit in any category. I’m
not exactly young, but I have young children. But each of us will find
ourselves and that our priorities are the same, and as we go through, maybe
you’ll find some things for yourself, but also those that you can pass on to
women that are in other categories in your churches.

Now older women were typically at least 60 years old, Now, I’m
not quite 60, so I guess by that definition, I’m a younger woman. They served
in many ways. They ministered to other women; they visited the sick, those in
prison; they provided hospitality. These were busy women, you know, there’s—there’s
none of this, “I did mine—I did my time, and now I’m going to sit around and
drink tea.” I mean, these women were really busy. They were taking in
orphans. You know, you remember Dorcas, they’re making things. I am blessed
at Grace Church to have many, many examples of women like this that are busy
women, and some of them are here in this room today that have ministered to me
in many ways. But these older women were busy women.

The word likewise, it links it with the previous
instructions. This is not something totally separate. This is likewise,
just like the older men, these women also are to be reverent in their
behavior. Now this is one of those phrases that I thought I knew. You know,
when you read scripture, do you do this? Do you think you know something and
then when you study it you find you didn’t know it at all? You know, reverent
in their behavior, I thought reverent? What does that look like? Well this
definition is the one that came together from the commentaries, and it wasn’t
very helpful. It said, priest like, that which is appropriate to holiness,
consecrated as priestess. OK. It didn’t have any flesh on the bones. I
didn’t know what that looked like, and so I had to look a little bit further. And
one of the passages that seemed to illustrate this concept the most was I
Timothy 2:9-11, and it’s the passage that talks about “likewise, I want women
to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with
braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather”—How are they
supposed to be clothed?—“by means of good works.” We’re not to be known by
our outward show; we’re to be known by our good works as is proper for women
making a claim to godliness, so that fleshed it out a little bit for me.
And then as I continued studying and meditating, I realized that really this
deals with the demeanor of a godly woman. She has—a godly, a truly godly
woman has an awareness of God in every single aspect of her life whether she is
washing the dishes, taking a shower, driving car pool, leading a Bible study,
helping with a church activity, home schooling her kids, whatever she is doing,
taking care of her grandchildren, she has an awareness of God. Do you
sometimes lose that awareness of God getting so buried in the details? I know
I do; I know it’s something that I have to stop and say, “Wait a second, this
is worship. Whatever it is that I’m doing is worship, and it needs to be for
God.” This isn’t something—I hurry through this so I can get to God. I need
to have an awareness of God in every single activity of my life, and this is
what it means to be reverent in their behavior. It’s not that they walk around
in hushed tones and sound super spiritual and pious. It’s that they’re aware
of God in everything—they realize that they are living life “Coram deo” before
the face of God, in everything that they do.

Then the passage moves from reverent in their behavior to
“not malicious gossips.” This is based on the work diabolos which
means slanderer or false accuser. Now this is really interesting. When I was
initially doing this study, Tom printed out for me all the word studies, you
know, doing the search for all the words. And at first I thought he had handed
me the wrong one, because it all had to do with Satan. Well, guess what? This
is the term used for Satan; it’s the same term. That’s scary, that God used
something that actually means a slanderer and a false accuser; that’s Satan.
And we are behaving Satan-like when we slander and when we falsely accuse. Thirty-four
times in the New Testament this actually refers to Satan, and what is he
called? “The father of lies”—strong word.

These women do not listen to or spread slanderous or
demeaning words about others. Now, women, I think you’ll agree with me, this
doesn’t have to be exclusively a struggle for women as a gender, but it really
can be. And part of that lies in our strength, communication. We like to
talk; we take a personal interest. And so that can be a good thing. I mean,
an example of the difference—this is kind of a male-female thing. Men can have
this difficulty as well, but a humorous example of this –Tom and I—Tom uses
this illustration sometimes, too.

Several years back Tom had played golf with a group of men.
OK, golf. This is seven, eight hours, a long day. Then we came back together
and the women had dinner together, and the men had dinner together. And then
Tom and I left together. So, OK, you get the picture. I’ve been the women two
hours; he’s been with the men nine. We get in the car, and I said, “What about
so-and-so and their son that had a brain tumor” and he goes, “They have a
son?” “Yes!” “Oh” And I knew everything about these women—their background; how
they came to know the Lord; their hopes, fears and dreams for the future. I
mean, I knew these women. We’d been together two hours. He’d been with the
men all day long, and knew nothing. And I was appalled. I said, “What did you
talk about?” “Golf?” OK.

Now, this can be a good thing. I often come back, and you
know, I’ll say, honey, “They’re struggling, you know we need to really come
alongside of them.” And you know, and he works at it. He’s really cute.
He’ll come back from a golf game which is maybe two, three times a year; truly,
he doesn’t get a lot of golf in. But he’ll come, he goes, “Honey, I tried to
steer the conversation; I tried to find out. He goes, “I’m sorry, we’re just going
to talk about golf. That’s all they want to talk about.” So he tries. That
can be a good thing. But also it raises a lot of temptations, doesn’t it?
Because now we know. We know the hopes, fears, dreams; we—you know, and women can
couch them in prayer requests. You know, we need to pray for so and so and
give more information than we really ought. Ephesians 4:29, “Let no
unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for
edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to
those who hear,” spiritual benefit to those who hear. Proverbs 10:19, “Where
there are many words,” “transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his
lips is wise.” So a godly woman is not a malicious gossip.

Nor is she enslaved to much wine. OK, this is
exactly what it appears to be. She’s not given to drunkenness. Now,
drunkenness was a big problem on the isle of Crete. OK, I guess if you were on
the isle—there’s not a whole lot on the Isle of Crete, but drunkenness was a
big problem. And it says, these women are not to be enslaved to much wine;
enslaved, to be held against one’s will, not to be enslaved to anything. Now,
when I went through this I thought, “OK, this is not a real big temptation for
me. I don’t even like wine.” But what is the bigger concept here? And I
think we find that in I Corinthians 6:12, the broader principle is “I will not
be mastered by anything—anything: TV, exercise, clothes, spending, you fill in
the blank. “I will not be mastered by anything.” And we need to ask ourselves,
and we need to come alongside the women that we have opportunity to minister to,
and are we or are they enslaved to anything?

I had early on, right after we were married, 17 years or so
ago, I found myself starting to get addicted to coffee, you know the office
thing of getting your fix in the morning getting caffeine. And I kind of made
a rule with myself; it’s not a big spiritual thing; it’s kind of a silly
illustration, but as soon as I found myself not being able to get through the
morning without a cup of coffee, I went cold turkey. Because I thought, “I
don’t want to be enslaved to anything.” Again, do I still drink coffee? Yes,
you know, now you can be addicted to caffeine anytime, you know, coffee mochas
or whatever. But it’s the principle of just being very careful that we are not
addicted to anything and we’re not enslaved by anything. We will not be
mastered.

Teaching what is good. This translates into one
Greek word, “teachers of good.” It’s something she is; it’s not something she
puts on; it’s not something she merely does. She is a teacher of good. Are
you a teacher of good? It’s not something added when your have time; it’s a
character quality. By this time these women are to have lived all the things
that they are teaching. They are to have taught their own children well, and
now they are to teach the younger women how to be godly wives and mothers.
They must be and do these things that they are to teach and encourage the young
women to be and do. They’re to be doing that. They are to have done those
things before they can teach them. Now, notice the contrast; I found this very
interesting. Again, in really meditating through the passage I like to connect
the dots because it’s so easy in a cursory reading, just to go, “OK, OK, OK,
that’s true,” and then you just kind of move on. What in the world do these
things have to do with each other, “reverent in their behavior, not malicious
gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of good.” These women are not
wasting time gossiping and deadening the pain and loneliness because by this
time many of them would be widows. And that would be a real temptation,
wouldn’t it? But rather, they are actively involved in others, and they’re
teaching what is good. They’re not gossiping and deadening the pain, but
they’re actively involved in other people’s lives, teaching what is good. So
that’s to be her character.

II. Let’s move to her second point, to our second point:
the priorities of a godly woman, and this is verses 4 through 5. “So that they
may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands.”

First we come to the priorities of older women.
Priority number 1: to teach the younger women. Remember they’re already being
what we talked about, her character. Now this is their first priorities of
an older woman; they are to teach the younger women. They are to
encourage, helping others to cultivate good judgment and sensibility.

Now this is formal and informal, isn’t it? We see this
teaching and encouraging in formal ways when we set up formal programs. Here
at Grace we have some wonderful ones, and some of you ladies have spoken to
some of the women from our women’s ministries. We have a Titus 2 that meets in
homes; that would be a structured time, even though it lends itself to
relationships, but it’s a structured time. Every Woman’s Grace, some of our
ladies seminars, retreats, things like that, they would be structured, but
there’s also a lot of informal, unstructured times. This would be older women
coming alongside younger women and living life right alongside of them,
practical help, encouraging phone calls, meals, cleaning out their cabinets. I
have one lady in my life—I come home, and my cabinets are reorganized. She’s
kept my kids, reorganized my cabinets and cooked dinner for me. I said,
“Linda, you have set a very high standard.” You know, wow, I’ve never—just to
see this in action from so many of the older women here in our church, that’s
the kind of help that as we mature beyond having children of our own in our
homes and even as our kids get older where we can help, we can come alongside
and help in these practical ways. That encourages me to love my husband and
love my children. Wow! Come alongside and say, “Can I help you? Do you know
how to budget? Can I help you budget? What are you discouraged about? Can we
talk through some discipline issues with your kids?” So it can be formal,
structured classes; it can be informal, just living life alongside.

And is says to encourage the young women, young women
of marriageable age until about 60. Now there’s some fluidity, and you’ll see
this with the ages. You’re not young at 59 and instantly old at 60, OK?
Before a woman is 60, she can still reach out to teach and encourage women
younger than herself or even younger in the faith; however, her first
priorities are her own husband and children and home. Now in older women,
older women past child-rearing will still have those priorities, won’t they? I
mean, Patricia [MacArthur] recently said to me, she said, “I still have Johnny
[John MacArthur]. I still have my kids, and now I’ve got 10, 11 grandkids, 12?
I mean, they’re just poppin’…” You know, and she’s—so she goes, “I still
have…” You know, she’s still living these priorities. Johnny didn’t go away.
And her kid’s need her now more in some ways than ever, and she’s very involved
in her grandchildren’s lives. What an example. But older women past
childrearing still have these priorities and maybe have added grandkids to
them, but she will sometimes have more time to focus on younger women as she
keeps her own priorities still.

Priority number 2. The first was to teach the younger
women. The second is to model what they teach; God’s design is dramatically
different as we’ve talked about from our world, our culture. And so the
priorities of an older woman is to teach younger women and to model what they
teach.

Then we come to the priorities of the younger women.
And I’ve paired these, and I’ll show you why as we get to the end of this
section. But the first one is her husband and children, and this is in verse 2:4.

She is commanded—they are commanded to love their
husbands. This is a committed choice; it’s willing; it’s determined; it’s
not based on his worthiness, but rather on God’s command. It’s a choice. And
she must train herself to love by doing. There are no conditions or
exceptions; it’s not a feeling; but rather a committed action, service, meeting
his needs. And one of the commentaries stated, “It’s not simply that love of a
husband is a virtue, but that not loving is a sin.” Not to love her husband is
a sin; this also is so contrary to our society. I don’t know about you, but
sometimes when I’m with my unsaved friends, and I talk about, “Well, I really
need to do this because this is what Tom needs,” they look at me like, “What,
are you a doormat?” Because there’s such an emphasis on self-love and
self-fulfillment, and you know, 50-50, you know, well he should be doing
his—you know, this whole—you know what I’m saying. There’s very little
emphasis in society at large on service and on giving oneself and on a woman
and a wife being made as a completer and a helper to her husband. That is
truly counter-culture. But love, Biblically, is committed; it’s
self-sacrificial; it is sometimes contrary—often perhaps, contrary to feeling.
It’s meeting the need of that person. And this fills out the commands in
Ephesians and Colossians and in I Peter on submission, where women, wives are
called to submit to their husbands, here we’re called to love our husbands, and
it’s a joyous thing.

She’s also commanded to love her children. And again, this
is selfless, it’s self-sacrificial, it is not an option; it’s based on their
needs. We are to love our children in every way, in every way, practical, physical,
social, moral, spiritual, no conditions and no limits. And it’s exhausting,
and it’s extremely demanding. I laugh because I wrote on my notes, “sleep
illustration.”

I remember when Lauren was first born, I really thought that
when she went to bed, that I was off duty. I really—you can imagine how
distressing that was; it didn’t work. And so, I really thought, I’ve done my
time, you know, she’s in bed and now it’s my time. And then she’d wake up.
The nerve of that child. I checked out. This is my time. And now that I have
three [children], seven and under, I swear, they get together before they go to
bed some nights and say, “OK, you take 10:30 and I’ll take 11:30. Let’s get
her like an hour and a half so she gets that really deep—and then you wake her
up OK, and then the baby will scream.” And they’ve got it all worked out back
there. I just, sometimes, I swear, cause I’ll get up in the morning, and Tom
say “How’d the night go?” Because of course he’s out, doesn’t hear any of it.
And I’ll say, “Well, I got up at…” you know. There have been times with sick
kids and this is nothing new. I’m not telling you ladies anything you don’t
know. I think the record was 14 times in one night. And usually, I mean, that
would be very rare. Most nights there’s nothing, but 14. OK. I have gotten
to the point, particularly when the kids are sick, that before I go to bed, I
remind myself, “I am here to serve my children even in the middle of the night.”
Now, I beg them before I go to bed, “Girls, I’m here if you need me. Please
try not to need me.” You know, but I’m here. I’m here if you need me,
because, you know, you go through the bad dream stage, and you know, the baby’s
on antibiotic and you know that she’s probably got diarrhea. You know all the
things; you want to be gracious; you want to be there. But it’s still “Please
don’t get me up unless you absolutely…” And so Lauren will say “Unless we’re
bleeding…” You’re right, and normally they do a good job.

But the point is that motherhood, just like being a wife
is demanding and it’s self-sacrificial.And we are here to serve. And
hopefully most of the time that doesn’t mean at 3:00 am. But I have to remind myself, with this last round, poor baby, my Jessica—she just turned a year old—she’s
had in the last week and a half, got a cold, turned into bacterial
conjunctivitis, turned into ear infection. You know how it goes. And so
before I went to bed, [I said to myself] “I will respond cheerfully when the
baby screams.” She had a fever of 102. You know, you’ve got to deal with this.
And so I would work at before I got up saying, “I’m going”—even though she
doesn’t know the difference—“I’m going to be cheerful. Lord, please help me to
do this and to serve her cheerfully whatever time this crisis occurs.” You can
tell this is a big issue with me, this sleep thing. But it’s just one
illustration of loving our children self-sacrificially, and I understand that once
their teenagers you look back at the sleep thing and say, “Huh, I’d take the
sleep thing any day.” I know, I know, I’ll look back and wish for this stage
again, right? So she’s to love her husband and to love her children.

And then the second main point her heart. Her second
priority is her heart; and this includes to be sensible and pure.

She is to be sensible; this has to do with, just like
it sounds, common sense, good judgment. She’s thoughtful; she’s
self-controlled. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? The problem with this is that
it’s often contrary to feelings, and many choose to live by feelings. I talk with
a lot of gals that really don’t know that you don’t have to live by your
feelings. They think they’re compelled to live by—“but I feel…” Sorry! You
know, there are many days I don’t feel like getting up; you don’t live by your
feelings. We do what is right; it’s not reactionary. It is thoughtful, full
of thought; it’s sensible. And this is a big temptation for many women; we are
to learn for ourselves, and we are to teach the women that we have opportunity
to minister to, that we as women are called to think and to act based on proper
thinking. And this is not a given. We need to think; we need to be sensible;
we need to have good judgment. And base our lives, live each day based on
proper thought.

She’s also to be pure; this deals with moral
purity, sexual purity, marital faithfulness, both physically and mentally. It
goes back to the I Timothy 2 passage that I’ve already referenced.

It has to do with modesty; it’s a healthy sense of
shame at saying anything, doing anything or dressing in any way that would cause
a man to lust. Don’t you wish that we didn’t have to even talk about this
at church? But it is a huge problem. Now this is rather a blunt statement,
but I think that you’ll understand where this lady’s coming from—Nancy Wilson.
Some of you may have read her. In her recent article I read, she said that she
told her husband, “It must be difficult for men to know which ones they have to
pay for these days.” Now that’s really ugly, but it’s true. Our society—the
women and the gals dress in such a way that you kind of have to wonder
sometimes. Immodesty is just a given. And we need to be very careful, and to address
this very clearly in our own lives, with our daughters. “You truly are not
going out looking like that.” The husbands need to come alongside and say
“Sorry, sweetheart, I will not allow to wear it that tight, that low, that
high.” Modesty is not a small thing; tempting a man to lust is no small
thing. And we need to emphasize with our daughters and with our ladies:
causing a man to lust—if he lusts in his heart, he has committed adultery.
This is a serious offense, and you have aided and abetted in that. This is no
small thing.

I also wish that I could act like immorality is not a
problem in the church. I’m not so naïve, unfortunately. I cannot tell you
how many incidents in recent years Tom and I have been brought into where other
churches have called here at Grace, where it has been the pastor’s wife that’s
involved with the young intern. It’s not uncommon. Don’t get cocky. We
cannot allow ourselves to say, “Well I,” you know, “got this or I’ve been
married 17, 35, 50 years.” Don’t think you stand, because you need to take
heed lest you fall. This is so common. Ladies, we must guard ourselves,
and we must teach those around us to guard ourselves. We’ve got to set very
high hedges. Tom and I come together, and we have set our own personal
hedges. And if ever there is any relationship, any relationship that starts
to get to comfortable, we cut that off or build a really high wall. And I
know for me, one hedge of mine is, if there is a friendship that starts to get
too close with a man, I do not talk to that person anymore; I avoid them. And
I tell my husband what’s going on at the first glimmer that I get that it may
even remotely be an issue. That’s how I protect myself, and he does the same.
And this is no small thing. I wish it were, but it’s not. So she is to be
pure.

Her third priority is to be her home, and that brings us
to verse 5: workers at home. Now this can be translated “working at home, busy
at home, diligent homemaker.” The idea is she’s a hard worker, and she’s
working on her home. OK? It’s not a complicated concept. Now, our culture
views that as bondage. “Oh, my goodness. Her emphasis is home? How
demeaning; how lowly.”

What are some of the ramifications from our culture of
women not making home their chief priority? I was thinking about this. Children
are raises by strangers. You know, I don’t know what it is like in your
communities. In my community, if a kid is not in preschool by 2, the neighbors
look aghast. “She’s not in preschool yet?” “She’s two; she’s a baby.” You
know, it gets younger and younger. It was mandatory kindergarten, and then now
they’re trying to get mandatory preschool and, you know, younger and younger
and younger. So these kids are institutionalized; they’re raised by
strangers. Now I’m not wholesale saying your kid can never go to preschool,
OK. I’m not going to set a time—“They can go for 8 hours, but not 10.” OK? We’re
not going to go there. They should not be primarily raised by strangers. So
children—and they’re lonely. You read about the kids that have been brought up
where the mother is never at home; they are lonely, lonely kids that turn into
lonely adolescents that hang out in the mall and have blue hair. I mean, not
all of them, but truly, I was with my girls a couple months ago; and there’s a
certain section of our mall where all the lonely adolescents hang out. And my kids
are kind of looking at them like, “Oh, boy. They have blue hair.” And you
know, and I said, “Sweetheart, do you know why those kids are hanging out
together?” “Well, no, Mommy.” I said, “I don’t think they really think their
parents care so much for them maybe some of them. You know, a lot of them
don’t have mommies and daddies that hang out with them and that are at home.”
And I said, “We shouldn’t look down on them. We should love them and care for
them.” I said, “Which do you think God hates worse, blue hair or
self-righteousness?” You know, and they’re like, because they had been real
“They have blue hair.” You know? Well, that’s not in the Bible. I mean I
hope my kids never have blue hair, and they won’t come home with it, that’s for
sure. But trying to help them see, you know, you’ve got to have compassion.
Oftentimes this is because they’re very lonely kids, and that’s why they’re
hanging out with dog collars and you know? They’re often lonely kids raised by
strangers.

Another ramification for women not making home their
priority.Wives are under the authority of men other than their
husbands. This is tough. I mean, I remember, even before kids, and again,
I’m not here to set down, “A woman may never work outside the home,” because
the Bible doesn’t say that. It says the priority should be her home. But I
remember working—I worked here at the church, loved it. I worked at the
Master’s College, fabulous. But there was often a “OK. Tom wants me to travel
on this event, and yet work is pulling this way—‘nyeeh’.” It sets up a lot of
difficult problems, because a wife’s authority is not just her husband. It can
really create some tension. You can study this in sociology. Extra-marital
affairs, they’ve always been there, but the workplace is an environment.
You’re dressed to the nines. They don’t see you at your weakest; they see you
at your best. You’re thrown into projects, into intimate relationships with
people that aren’t your spouse, and it’s an environment rife for extra-marital
affairs and chaotic homes, utter chaos. Have you ever stepped into a lot of
homes? How do they live? There’s a path, you know? Wow! It’s difficult if
you’re not home to care for the home.

Now, women with no children or grown children may have more
time for work; they may have more time for outside ministry, but we must use
sensibility, that character quality we’ve already talked about under our
husband’s authority and guidance to know how much of our time we can invest
outside of our home. And our husband is the best one to do that, isn’t he?
He’s there to protect us. And before I accept any ministry opportunity or
extra responsibility, I say, “Tom, what do you think?” And he’ll, “If you
want to do it, honey, I want you to be able to.” But he’ll ask some guiding
questions, “How much time is it going to take? How is this going to affect the
other activities you’re involved with?” You know, so under his guidance he can
help me decide how much time I can spend. And it’s going to look different;
it’s going to look different for different families. You know, the Jones
family is going to look different than the Pennington family.

One illustration I think of, and I’m going to change this
name because this is being taped, and you know how tapes have a way of getting
around. I’ll call this woman Mrs. Green, and it’s a good example. But we had
a woman where I grew up, and I’ll call her Mrs. Green, that she had so much
energy, it was disgusting. OK, my mom was not one that had a lot of additional
energy. Life was hard for my mom; she did not have a lot of extra. But Mrs.
Green could work and teach piano and take care of her home and have home-baked
things and parties that she talked, talked, talked for all of her birthdays for
her kids. Legend, local lore had that she had a baby on a Tuesday and hosted a
dinner party Wednesday. OK, this was a woman that all the other women were
like… They loved Mrs. Green, but she could do anything. And she always was
cheerful and truly had the energy.

My mother-in-law, Mrs. Pennington had 10 children; she did
not have extra energy to throw dinner parties. She got up at, you know,
breakfast was at 5:30. You know, “Boys, come to the table.” And, they had
Bible-reading and prayer. She had eggs, grits, bacon, biscuits, OK. She did
not have time to run a local charity. Her home was the local charity, taking
care of 10 kids. My point is we’re going to look different. And if tried to aspire
to be Mrs. Green, I would kill myself. If I tried to aspire to be Mrs.
Pennington, I—“whoo”—that means seven more kids. Bless her. She had my
husband when she was 46, number 10 and oh, she’s such a neat lady. Now which
one would I have traded in? You know, which one would I wouldn’t have? She
loves her children and her grandchildren and now her great-grandchildren.

But both ladies in my illustration, their focus, their
joy was their home, and ministry flowed out of their family and their home;
that’s the point. It’s not that my way is the right way or that we can set
any individual and script our lives to be like that person. The priorities are
Biblical; how they are carried out in your home is going to look different from
how they’re carried out in mine. The point is her responsibility is for the
home. Her home is her special domain and her highest priority. And
Proverbs 31 fills this out, doesn’t it?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I really like Proverbs 31.
But it overwhelms me. I have to put Proverbs 31 in the context of Titus 2. OK?
Because if I go to Proverbs 31, I’m going to be all over the map. And someone
reminded me recently, “Sheila, that was not a real woman.” OK, point
well-taken. So Proverbs 31, though, shows the myriad of activities that a
woman can have, but her home is still her priority. Our culture thinks that the
victims are those whose priority is their home, don’t they? But the true
victims are those who’ve been misled about being set free from God and the
home. I mean I have neighbors that I just look at them and I think that is
so sad. They’re dropping their kids off at daycare at 6:30 in the morning for preschool breakfast, and so sad. And they think they’re living. You know, and
that just makes me very sad. It makes me very sad. So she’s to be busy at
home.

And she is to be kind. Kind—it means “good, gentle,
considerate, amiable, congenial”—ouch! Gentle, considerate, amiable—this is
kind of a tough list, actually. Congenial—she is sympathetic even with those
who are undeserving and unkind. Do you notice, this is not towards everybody
else. Who is this directed toward mostly? Who? Her family. It’s a god-like
characteristic. Luke 6:35—“For God himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”
That sounds like my kids sometime. Ephesians 4:32—“Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has also forgiven
you.”

There is some evidence that these instructions are in
pairs. Notice that I put them in pairs. Her husband and her children was one
pair; her heart covered sensible and pure; and then her home is workers at home
and kind. So they’re to love their husbands and love their children; they’re
to be sensible and pure; they’re to be workers at home and kind. Now that pair—when
I—I thought what? What does that have to do anything with each other? Workers
at home and kind. That has nothing to do with each other. Workers at home and
kind, busy and kind? That has nothing to do with each other. Do you get the
point that I’m driving at? Busy and kind? It’s a combination of being
hard-working while still being good-natured and considerate. Ouch! Now I
don’t know about you, but I can be busy. And I can be kind. But busy and kind
at the same time? I struggle with that. I can be busy; I can get a lot done.
And I can be kind. But busy and kind—and so I thought. How fascinating.
Because truly, I kept studying, going, “These two things have nothing to do
with each other.” That’s the point; they should. She needs to be
hard-working while still being good-natured and considerate.

Now this hit a little too close to home earlier this week
because I was very busy. And I sensed that my seven-year-old needed some mommy
time, subtle clues, you know. So I took her up to my room and sat her on my
lap, and we just kind of rocked. And I said, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” And
she said, “Well, I’m just tired of you being so busy, getting ready for
Shepherds’ Conference,” you know, “and your just so busy.” Well, you know
what? We’re often busy, and so I knew it really didn’t have anything to do
with our being busy. I kind of sort of thought I knew what she was getting at.
And I said, “Sweetheart,” I just thought I’d ask. I said, “What do you mean?”
She said, “Well, you’re just so busy.” And she didn’t know how else to say it,
and I said, “Lauren, is it because I haven’t been speaking kindly to you?” She
said, “Yes, Mommy.” Ouch. Busy and kind, busy and kind. And I had to
apologize to her and seek her forgiveness because you know what? I can be
busy, and she’s busy too. You know, we work, and we spend time together. But
what she was telling me is I was too busy because of the way I was speaking to
her, and I was not being kind. And I even had her illustrate it, and it
wasn’t attractive. But I said, “Can you give me an example?” And she did, and
I won’t even go there. I won’t be that vulnerable. So that point made such an
impression on me. And if I can only remember it, to be both busy and kind, and
thankfully I’ve told my kids. They really are fabulous consciences. Because, I
have told them, “You may come to me and ask me and tell me, ‘Mommy, you’re not
speaking to me kindly’ or ‘Mommy…’” And I want them to, and so they do. They
do it very respectfully. And I try to respond properly when they do. I
sometimes have to take a break in order to do it. “I’ll be back with you in
just a few minutes; let me pull it together here first.” So I know when I’m
not being busy and kind at the same time.

And then her priority is her head, or being
subject to her own husband. And it’s interesting; the final priority here
about being subject to her own husband comes all the way back to her husband.
Did you notice we started with loving her husband and we end this section with
being subject to her own husband? Do you think it has something to do with
maybe being focused on her husband? Subjecting yourselves—the definition here
would be willingly submitting one’s own will to that of another or arranging
oneself under. Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, I Peter 3 all deal with
submission. And Ephesians 5 tells wives that they are to submit to—here’s the
whole lesson—I did a whole lesson on this a couple years ago. And it’s a
really good study, to study out submission because I thought I knew what it
meant until I studied it. But Ephesians 5, here’s the whole answer, OK? Tells
the wives they are to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord in everything.
That’s it; it’s simple; it’s just not easy. Martha Peace covers it well in her
book, The Excellent Wife; she’s very thorough. Charles Spurgeon wrote
this about his wife, Susanna:

“She delights in her husband in his person, his character,
his affection. To her he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in
her eyes, he is the all in all. Her heart’s love belongs to him and only to
him. He is her little world, her paradise, her choice treasure. She is glad
to sink her individuality in him. She seeks no renown for herself. His honor
is reflected upon her and she rejoices in it. She will defend his name with
her dying breath. Safe enough is he where she can speak for him. His smiling
gratitude is all the reward she seeks. Even in her dress she thinks of him, and
considers nothing beautiful which is distasteful to him. Such a wife as a true
spouse realizes that the model marriage relation and sets forth what our
oneness of the Lord ought to be.”

That’s what he wrote about his wife.

So we’ve looked at a godly woman’s character and her
priorities. But what’s her motive to be? Why are we to do this?
That’s answered in 2:5, “So that the word of God will not be dishonored.” In
other words, this is to silence the enemies of Christ. They should never have
a legitimate complaint. In essence, the motive is to glorify God and not bring
Him dishonor.

Our time has gone for me rather quickly today. You
can tell I’ve been deep into this, and thank you for listening so well. But I
do want to end with just a couple of practical things that can help us. This
is very practical, so if you can stick with me for a little while longer. I
wanted to give some practical helps not only for those of us here, but also
that we can take and perhaps help others.

And so we move to the practice of a godly woman. These
are the “how-to’s,” OK, the “good stuff,” how to do this.

As we look at how to live this way, I broke it down into three
areas: we need to think properly, plan wisely and reexamine often.

Think properly: we need to recognize that the motives
are far greater than our own comfort. We need to listen to godly men as they
teach us. We need to have the proper goals for our character and lifestyle,
Biblical goals, don’t we? We need to think properly. We need to diligently
work on our character. As we think properly, we need to think Biblically about
what our days should really entail. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the
most spiritual thing I can do is care for people; it’s not attending some
function. I had the opportunity the last four months to care for my dying
father. He just passed away a few weeks ago, and there were many days that I
had to get up and say, “This is the most spiritual thing I can do today.” I
had a myriad of other things that were pressing, and the most spiritual thing I
could do was to go care for my dad. This last week was to care for my kids.
You know, that’s the most spiritual thing I can do. True religion is to care
for the orphans and widows. In my case, it was a widower. And so we need to
think properly; we need to think Biblically—that caring for people and
particularly that God has set out of our priorities, is the most spiritual
thing we can do.

We also need to plan wisely. We need to order our
schedules to give proper time to these things. We need to set up our lives in
order to fulfill these requirements. Now this means that we’re going to have
to say no to a lot of good things, doesn’t it? There are so many good things
to do. We have to set aside our time and choose carefully what we are going to
do. We have to ask ourselves daily questions. Here are some of the questions
I ask myself:

What time am I going to spend in God’s Word and prayer
today?

Which areas of my life need shoring up today—tongue, purity,
kindness, sensibility?

How can I love and submit to Tom today?

How can I love and care for my kids today?

What at home has to be done today, not what do I want
to get done today, but what has to be done?

How can I reach out to a younger woman today and teach her
and encourage her?

Setting out my schedule according to these priorities. I’ll
also sometimes—I am a To Do person, and it can really get in my way, OK? Because
I’ve got a list a mile long and I get so caught up in checking those things off
the list that I forget to do what’s really important cause I’m getting one more
thing done on my list. So many times I will write my list and I’ll put “God” and
say, “The most important thing I can do today is spend 20 minutes in praise.”
“Tom” “What’s the most important thing I can do for Tom today?” And put each
of my children’s names. Then, at the bottom I get into the “To Do’s.” Because
if I don’t do that, my whole day’s topsy-turvy, and I’m doing all the stuff and
ignoring the people. Do the important thing first. All of our time can be
swept away with the stuff of life. Often the important thing is something that
doesn’t seem to be getting much done, calling our husbands, writing an
encouraging note, doing the thing that’s bugging him that I could care less
about. Spending 20 minutes rocking my seven-year-old because she needs a
little extra TLC. Those are sometimes the important things that never make it
on my “to do” list. So do the important things first. So think properly, plan
wisely, and we must reexamine often.

We must reexamine often. What does your average week
look like? You know, we often set our sites ahead, and then we veer off two
degrees. And what happens? We veer off a little bit at a time, but where do
we end up? Close to our goal or very, very far from it? We have to reexamine
often so that we get back on course. You know, we’re always going to get a
little off course, but that’s why we have to keep coming back and saying “OK,
what am I supposed to do again?” “Who am I supposed to be again?” Get back on
course. Do you schedule and take sufficient time for these priorities? Are we
tacking these truths onto our lives? “Oh, I need to disciple women, so I’m
going to tack that on to my life.” Or are we structuring our whole lives based
on this text? It’s not something to tack onto our life; it’s something to take
our life and say, “How do I measure up to this passage.” And “What radical
changes need to take place perhaps in order for me to live this way?”

I had a very poignant moment soon after my mom died five
years ago. I wrote out the kind of woman that I wanted to be. Now, and I’m
always doing that, but this was particularly poignant, because my mom was gone
at 62. And I wrote out the kind of woman that I wanted to be, you know the
character, what I wanted to be known, and basically my eulogy, what I want my
eulogy to be. It’s a good exercise because you know what I did next? I took
my “to do” list and compared the two. There was no overlap—none. And it was
so poignant because I thought, “This is the woman I say I want to be, and
here’s what I’m spending all my energies doing? And there’s no overlap? This
is a problem.” Compare your priorities with your schedule. Compare
your priorities with your “to do’s”. At the end of each day, we should step
back and say, “Where was my time with God today?” “What did I do for my
husband today?” “Was I there for my children today?” “How did it go at home
today?” “How did I minister to other women today?” And often we have to say,
“Wow, I was way off course. Got to do better tomorrow.” So reexamine often.

Now, we’re going to have women in our groups that are from
various stages: single, married with no children, single mom, widow. You know,
these principles still apply. It’ll take wisdom in each of those cases to know
how to specifically apply it. And I had a lot of specific things, but I think
that God can give each of us wisdom as we deal with women in these situations.
But let me share a story that will probably clarify this in all the different
situations.

One of my dear, dear friends and mentors is Mary Barshaw,
and many of you from Grace know Mary. And Fred her husband passed away almost
10 years ago now. We were talking the other day; it’s been almost 10 years. Mary
has been such an example to me because she told me shortly after her dear
Freddy—she still calls him Freddy—passed away. And I said, “How you doing,
Mary?” And she goes, “You know what sweetheart, I have determined to be the
best widow I can be.” I mean, it’s one thing to say, “I am determined to be
the best wife I can be.” It’s another to say, “I am determined to be the best
mommy I can be.” But “I’m determined to be the best widow I can be”? You
know, it shows that in all the various stages that we will go through, that the
women around us in our churches will go through, that God can give us the grace
to live out these priorities to the best of our ability in whatever stage of
life we find ourselves in.

Our pastor says this in his commentary on this passage: “The
home is where a wife can provide the best expression of love for her husband.
It is where she teaches and guides and sets a godly example for her children. It’s
where she’s protected from abusive and immoral relationships with other men and
where, especially in our day, she still has greater protection from worldly
influences. The home is where she has special opportunity to show hospitality
and devote herself to good works. The home is where she can find authentic and
satisfying fulfillment as a Christian and as a woman.”

We must diligently strive to live out the priorities of
Titus 2, and to encourage the women around us to do the same. There’s such
wonderful opportunity, ladies, to structure our lives around this passage.
When we’re feeling overwhelmed, let’s stop and meditate and pray through Titus
2 and get clarification and get back on course.